“She was annoyed,” the draft says. In the next sentence, the character puts the untouched cup down hard enough to spill it. Do you need both? Sometimes yes: the explanation may orient the reader. Sometimes it tells the reader what the action already made available.
Try a small revision experiment before applying a rule to the whole piece. The aim is clarity and a deliberate reading experience, not a ban on explanation.
Choose one sentence to test
Find a sentence that labels a feeling, motive or relationship immediately beside an action. Copy the paragraph into a working space and remove only that sentence. Keep the original so the experiment is easy to reverse.
Read the shorter version. What can you still understand? What became ambiguous? In our invented cup scene, the action might suggest annoyance, clumsiness or haste. If that uncertainty conflicts with the scene’s purpose, deleting the label may have removed something useful.
Check the surrounding evidence
Look at the dialogue and the preceding action before adding a new gesture. Perhaps the character has just heard an unwelcome demand, making the reaction clear enough. Perhaps the cup is the first thing the reader encounters, and the paragraph needs a different kind of orientation.
Avoid replacing every emotion word with a clenched fist or a racing heart. Repeated gestures can become their own shorthand. Choose a detail that belongs to this character and this situation, or keep the direct explanation when it does the job better.
Compare the pace as well as the meaning
An explanatory sentence can slow a moment down, create distance or express a narrator’s judgement. Read both versions aloud and ask what changes in the rhythm. The shorter paragraph is not automatically the stronger one.
Save the version that serves the scene, then leave a one-line note about your choice. If you need a broader check, use a revision log to track the reason rather than every altered word.
You have made a useful edit when you can explain what the reader gains. “It is shorter” is a measurement; “the pause now comes after the action” describes an effect worth considering.